The Untold Truth Of The Pandemic Board Game

With some problematic realities on our doorstep, do games like this actually "help?" To be clear, no-one said these games actually should help. They're games. Expecting a game to achieve a higher good is as unreasonable as expecting generosity of cats or fiber from grape-flavored bubble gum.

With some problematic realities on our doorstep, do games like this actually "help?" To be clear, no-one said these games actually should help. They're games. Expecting a game to achieve a higher good is as unreasonable as expecting generosity of cats or fiber from grape-flavored bubble gum. 

But Pandemic is, to some extent at least, a simulation. In the nay column, there's the argument that board games like this push us into dwelling on negativity. As Jorge Albor states in Pop Matters, "If you weren't already paranoid about the latest threat to your health ... then Pandemic: Legacy will move you one step closer to hypochondria." In the yay column, the field of psychology is continually uncovering new information on how simulations can prepare us for stressful situations, from dealing with loss to making snap decisions on the battle-field. Perhaps it's a stretch (OK, OK, it's definitely a stretch), but when push comes to shove, one argument is that games like this might be building a behavioral muscle memory that just might serve us in good stead. Sure, it's grossly simplified, but Pandemic pushes players to ask questions, most notably among them, "What would I actually do?"

Whichever column you side with, it looks like we'll be talking about our species' relationship with pathogens for a long time to come. 

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